Extreme Weather Events Impact on Forced Migration | China Accepts Agreement to End Harmful Fisheries Subsidies | ILO Director General Visits the Philippines

In Switzerland, among the 42 homicides recorded, 25 of them (60%) were cases of domestic violence, the majority of the victims were women.

Human Rights Council

Diplomats and human rights experts from NGOs discussed, this week, at the Human Rights Council, the impact of extreme weather events on forced migration.

In 2020, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events.  Droughts were the main factor.  It was estimated that in 2020, 75 per cent of new displacements from Somalia to Kenya were caused by climate change. 

The International Rescue Committee noted that in 2022, 60,000 Somalis had fled their homes due to climate change and had crossed into Kenya. 

In 2016, in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador over 3.5 million people needed humanitarian assistance due to an extended drought. 

In 2020, two severe hurricanes caused considerable damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock in Honduras, forcing people to be displaced across international borders.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Mr. Ian Fry, said, in his presentation to the Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, that the “number of people being displaced across international borders is rapidly increasing, as the effects of climate change become more severe. It is time for the international community to protect people displaced across borders due to climate change.”

Mr. Fry called for a resolution to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly next September, requesting the “development of an optional protocol under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to define and outline legal protections to people displaced across international borders due to climate change.”

Watch Dr. Fry when he first assumed the post of Special Rapporteur in June of 2022.